What exactly is Victor Wembanyama’s game?
This is one of the NBA’s most important questions, especially as he’s putting on a sneak preview of his potential this preseason. Through five games, the San Antonio Spurs’ 21-year-old star simply looks like a different player, one who can fill a variety of roles.
Wembanyama’s development has long been viewed as a solo process. That is, until lottery luck brought 2025 No. 2 draft pick Dylan Harper to town and opened a dual franchise player track for San Antonio to pursue long-term.
Big picture, Harper is the player on the roster most likely to be starting in the All-Star game alongside Wembanyama in seven years. De’Aaron Fox, who just signed a maximum contract extension after arriving in a midseason trade with the Sacramento Kings, turns 28 this season and will be at the end of his prime when Wembanyama approaches his. Stephon Castle, 20, won NBA Rookie of the Year last season in a weaker draft class, but didn’t have the type of eye-opening campaign that projected a clear path to stardom.
Harper appears to be the guy to unlock Wemby’s best self further down the road.
With all three of those guards injured to start the preseason, Wembanyama was left to run the Spurs’ offense as the primary playmaker. Now, he has graduated into more of a power wing role with Harper and Castle healthy. Even as he wows opponents and fans, Wembanyama is more of a mystery at this point, with his teammates acknowledging they’re not sure what he’ll do when an action starts.
“We’ve been in the gym quite a bit this summer just trying to learn the spots that Vic likes and the spots to put me in the best situation to be successful and be there for the outlets,” Keldon Johnson said. “He’s one of a kind. It just takes time to be able to develop that chemistry.”
The tough question to answer when watching Wembanyama’s preseason tape is how much of his aggression will translate to the regular season. Defenses will be significantly better once the regular season starts, ramping up in effort, connectivity and physicality. Will he be able to drive into the lane as persistently? Will lowering his shoulder into defenders continue to yield openings? Can he dribble through traffic against a real NBA defense? He’s already struggling with turnovers as is, and while it’s apparent he is testing out the tools he discovered and refined over the offseason, it’s hard to imagine he can sustain this level of usage on a nightly basis.
One thing that has been apparent: He’s no longer chucking 3s. Wembanyama has been passing up many reasonable 3-point looks in the preseason and only taking wide-open ones. Instead, he’s attacking space more often to get to the basket.
Last season, Wembanyama attempted more than twice as many 3s per game (8.8) as free throws (4.1). In the first four games of the preseason, the trend has flipped to 2.3 attempted 3s and 5.75 free throw attempts per game.
If this is an indication of Wemby’s long-term development path, then Harper becomes a part of that calculus, sooner rather than later.
The rookie point guard from Rutgers projects to be the perfect complement to this version of the Spurs’ franchise player and can grow alongside Wembanyama to maintain an ideal partnership. Harper has been viewed as a star in the making for several years, but his struggles at summer league put the brakes on expectations that he would kick off his career with as much momentum as Wembanyama or Castle.
Since his recent return from the thumb surgery he had in September, though, Harper has shown glimpses that he’s still on that long-presumed track for stardom now that he’s wearing an NBA jersey.
“There’s a reason that there are expectations and thoughts of him before he got to this gym, and I think it’s our job to continue to cultivate that and support that and challenge him,” coach Mitch Johnson said of Harper. “He’s obviously shown a knack for sound decision-making and making plays with the basketball in his hands.”
Harper is averaging 10.0 points, 5.5 assists and one turnover in 20 minutes per game across two preseason contests. He looks much more patient and composed than he did at summer league, which his coach attributed to jitters and the long layoff between the end of his college season at Rutgers in early March and summer league in July.
The 19-year-old has impressed with his feel for attacking angles and making more advanced floor reads. One of his specialties is to take a looping driving path that allows him to control the point of contact with his defender to carve out space, something guards usually don’t develop until later in their rookie contracts. When he gets stuck in a trap, he is good at making the easy pass out and pointing to his teammates where the ball should be reversed.
Harper has shown good chemistry with backup center Luke Kornet, who plays a more traditional pick-and-roll game. Kornet is one of the better centers in the league at adjusting the timing of his rolls to the hoop to create better passing lanes, and is good at hitting the brakes to read the floor once he gets the ball. Those skills have complemented Harper, who is good at drawing a crowd and still threading passes through the defense.
Harper has a good feel for finding the subtleties in straightforward situations to create an advantage. Watch how he deals with the Indiana Pacers’ press by keeping a close eye on when his teammate, Kornet, hits the brakes to set a screen. Harper reacts the split second Kornet plants his foot to sneak up into a pick, ensuring he compromises the defense to make the pass to Kornet on the roll easy.
This is a good start, showing how, even as a rookie, Harper can be an active decision maker coming off the bench once Fox is healthy.
In the long run, Harper’s primary contributions playing next to Wembanyama are to make the game easier for him and to twist the gravity Wembanyama creates to mess with defenses. Early returns are promising. Since Harper returned from his thumb injury, Wembanyama is 16-for-17 from the line and has been noticeably more aggressive attacking off the dribble to score. Wembanyama is still committing too many turnovers, but that’s OK for now because it’s clear he is in experimentation mode.
Harper, meanwhile, has looked comfortable with his game in his early time with the Spurs. This below play illustrates what Harper’s doing well and how he still needs to adjust to fully maximize Wembanyama. After getting locked up on the first pick-and-roll of the possession, Harper reverses the ball to Kornet and immediately points to wing Devin Vassell to set up a potential dribble handoff. When the Pacers shut that down, Harper immediately springs into action to get the ball instead.
The only problem is that he somehow misses a little somebody standing under the hoop waiting for him.
There are so many simple reads a point guard can make throughout the possession, and top young prospects often have trouble making the game less complicated. Harper seems ahead of the curve on that task, even with there still being lots of room for improvement.
In terms of the bread and butter of being a point guard — constantly being aware of how the floor is spaced, being quick to solve the puzzle to find an advantage and knowing when to be aggressive hunting his own shot — Harper is already showing he has what it takes to embody that ideal, sooner or later.
The quicker Harper gets there, the faster the Spurs will get a clearer picture of their ultimate goal: Finding a sense of direction in Wembanyama’s player development path so his team can be optimized.
